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I'm Angela Davis, a PNW native, mom of lots of kids, and I love saving money. I'm here to help you live well on a budget by making every penny count. You'll find deals at your local stores, ways to save online, recipes, and frugal living tips and inspiration.

A quick lesson in coupon coding: How registers read $1 off produce coupons

Shared on October 19, 2010This post may contain affiliate links which means I make a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you. See the disclosure policy for more information.

I get this question quite frequently, so I thought it would be helpful to deal with it on the blog.

ANSWER: Think of coupons like stickers. The register requires a manufacturer’s coupon to “stick” or attach to a product. In most cases, the “Buy Product X, Get $1 off Product Y” coupon is coded to attach to the free product, leaving the product you paid for open for a cents off (or dollar off) coupon. This is why a scenario like this works:

Yoplait Yogurt on sale $1
Buy 2
Use BOGO Yoplait coupon — attaches to the “FREE” product
Use $1/1 Yoplait coupon — attaches to the product you are paying for
FREE after coupons

Now, some stores specifically forbid using both coupons, but all stores will be reimbursed by the manufacturer for both deductions.

But the scenario listed in the question poses a problem when the two coupons are scanned.

Here’s the problem: It’s impossible for the manufacturer to code the “Buy Quaker Oatmeal, Get $1 off produce” coupon to actually attach to the produce since it’s a generic item, so it’s coded to attach to the Quaker Oatmeal.

The first coupon you scan will work fine (regardless of which coupon is scanned), but the second coupon will “beep” when scanned because there is not an item in the transaction for the register to assign it to. Unless the cashier “pushes the coupon through” you won’t be able to use both coupons.

You will run into this problem every time you try to use a dollar off coupon along with a “$ off a certain generic item” coupon — eggs, produce, meat — anything that cannot be specifically coded. If you want to use both coupons, your transaction must look like this:

I was able to use 2 $1 off of quaker oatmeal mc, $2 off of Tropicana OJ when you buy 2 Quaker oatmeal mc, and $1 off produce when you buy 2 quaker oatmeals and doublers!
Paid a little over $1 for all that! Hope that’s “ok” to do. They didn’t have to push it through so I figured it was ok. Maybe they did, but I didn’t notice.